US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton overtook her rival, Barack Obama, in a latest national poll released on Thursday.

According to the Gallup poll conducted from March 14 to 18, about 48 percent of 1,209 American adults surveyed favors New York Senator Clinton to be the party's presidential nominee, five percentage points more than Illinois Senator Obama.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton delivers a campaign speech on the war in Iraq at George Washington University in Washington, March 17, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) 

The poll has an error margin of 3 percentage points.

Gallup said that it was the first statistically significant lead for Clinton over Obama since a daily tracking poll conducted February 7 to 9, days after the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses.